


Seven Devils

by BananasofThorns



Series: Seven Devils 'verse [1]
Category: Daredevil (TV), The Defenders (Marvel TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Angels & Demons, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Demon Matt Murdock, Gen, In which Matt is a demon but not really, No promises on frequent updates, Other, Supernatural Elements, The defenders will be here in chapter 3, Which is why it's tagged as defenders
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-12
Updated: 2019-06-12
Packaged: 2020-05-02 04:42:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,066
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19192042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BananasofThorns/pseuds/BananasofThorns
Summary: Matt Murdock is not human.----------I want to make a deal,” he says. Water fills his mouth, trying to push the words back in. He welcomes the freeze in his lungs.He does not know how long it is before God reappears in a blaze of light so bright that it blinds him for a moment. When he can see again, he is floating and the ice surrounding him has shattered. Above him, there are stars.“I want to make a deal,” he repeats. God laughs.“You are still an angel, Matthew. Do not speak of things you do not understand.”





	Seven Devils

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Update 8/1/2019: I edited some things in this chapter! It's not _too_ drastic, but I think it's much better than it was before. You don't have to read the chapter again, but it would probably be nice.
> 
> I'm working on chapter 2 (kind of). I have part of a first draft, but it's not even finished and it's already much longer than chapter one. I'm probably going to rewrite the whole thing. Not sure when it'll be done.

Matt is not human.

He doesn’t know when he first realizes it; it’s always been a fact of life, just like it is a fact that his name is Matthew Murdock. He thinks he’s always known it, subconsciously, but details and memories trickle in the older he gets.

Father Lantom is the only one he tells. 

(His dad is killed before he realizes it fully, but he’s not sure if he would have told him either way.)

**"Time and distance, they afford a certain clarity."  
-Wilson Fisk**

_He dreams, sometimes, of Hell. At least, that’s what he thinks it is. It isn’t Hell in the commonly perceived way; there are no flames, there is no heat, and the tortured do not scream. In his Hell, he is trapped beneath the icy surface of a lake, condemned to an eternity of frozen silence. He does not know how long he is there. Time ceases to have meaning when you’re eternal._

_God casts him out of Heaven and into the lake because he rebels. Lucifer and their brothers and sisters rise against God, and they are punished. He has been sent to this Hell to reflect upon his actions and repent; he doesn’t regret anything, and so he stays._

_While spending millennia drifting in and out of undreaming unconsciousness, he gains clarity._

_God loves all His children and all His creations, but He is not merciful. He casts His angels from Heaven for rebelling; He sends them to Hell with the hope that they will repent. Matt knows that none of them will ever regret their actions and he’s sure God knows this as well. God knows that they are being tortured and He does nothing. He knows that they will not renounce their actions and so He leaves His angels to suffer._

_Slowly, their halos twist and break until they become spirals of bone on their heads. They keep their wings, but feathers that were once pure white turn black with the soot of their failed rebellion. All God does is watch._

_But then, one day, Matt awakens to a blinding light. He is still in the lake, but the ice around him has thawed into freezing water. It has been too many years to count, but he can still recognize the blazing presence of his Father._

_“Matthew,” God says. His voice is both warm and acidic, and Matt can’t flinch away because the ice has thawed but he is still frozen in place. “Have you reflected upon your actions?”_

_“I have.”_

_“And have you decided to repent?”_

_Matt laughs, sarcastic and bitter. Water fills his lungs but he doesn’t choke. Not anymore._

_“I have not.”_

_God disappears in a blaze of white-gold flame. The lake refreezes in His absence and Matt falls back into unconsciousness. For the first time, he dreams. He sees Lucifer fall, his wings curled in flaming streaks around his body. He feels himself being cast from Heaven, feels the ice solidify around his body._

_He wakes up._

_“I want to make a deal,” he says. Water fills his mouth, trying to push the words back in. He welcomes the familiar freeze in his lungs._

_He does not know how long it is before God reappears in a blaze of light so bright that it blinds him for a moment. When he can see again, he is floating and the ice surrounding him has shattered. Above him, stars form long-forgotten constellations._

_“I want to make a deal,” he repeats. God laughs._

_“You are still an angel, Matthew. Do not speak of things you do not know.”_

_Matt feels the horns on his head, accepts their spiraling weight. It's a stark contrast to the indifference of his halo. His wings, when he flutters them in the water, are as black as the sky above their heads._

_“You don’t know who I am.” His voice is different, gruffer. For the first time, God hesitates._

_Finally, He says, “I will take your deal.” Matt grins and his teeth are sharp. “You will be sent to Earth and you will have light and warmth. You will have sound, taste, and smell. You will have life._

_“You will not kill.”_

_Even though he is countless millennia old, Matt is naive. He does not think, he just agrees._

_He should have known that God would twist his words. He is free of the lake, free of the ice, but there is a price to pay. God takes his sight and leaves him with a world of fire. He hears and tastes and smells so much more than he could before._

_It enforces his belief that God is a cruel, uncaring being._

**"How do you know the angel and the devil inside me aren't the same thing?"  
-Matt Murdock**

After his dad dies, he is raised in a Catholic orphanage. The demon inside of him protests, but he is still enough of an angel that the holy ground doesn’t reject him.

The other children are cruel. They have all lost their parents, but that loss only increases their anger. They need an outlet and so they take their anger and grief out on him. He doesn’t know if their taunts are because he’s blind or if they’re because they can sense, somehow, that he is wrong. That he is bad.

They corner him one day. Their words are as blunt as the punches they throw. When he falls, shoulder slamming into the ground and glasses tumbling away, they laugh. He stands, hands curled into fists. He is blind, but he was once an angel. His dad was a boxer. He can hear their hearts, he can smell their fear. There is still fight in his blood.

Their laughter fades away when he rises. He tilts his head, listening. His horns are a comfortable weight on his head. Distantly, he can hear a nun approaching. He shakes his head and lowers his fists. By the time the nun turns the corner, he again looks like the timid blind kid they think he is. The kids tell her that he is the Devil and she believes them.

He spends the night on the stone floor of a corridor, the cold seeping into his bones. At confession, he tells Father Lantom that he isn't human.

A few days later, Stick arrives.

-+-

_“Are you going to help me?” He asks Stick. The old man scoffs, scornful as always._

_“Hell no, kid. I’m going to train you.”_

-+-

_Stick trains him for a war he has no interest in being a part of. It would be so easy to let the Devil out, to show Stick that he doesn’t need his shitty excuse for help. The only reason he doesn’t is because he’s biding his time. Stick will die, just like any mortal, and Matt has forever to wait for that to happen._

_When Stick kills the kid, though, Matt almost does the deed himself. The only reason he doesn’t is because he’s sworn never to take a life. That is the one thing tying him to Heaven. He does not like God, but he respects Him, and that is enough to force him to keep his promise._

_(He does not want to become what they all think he is.)_

_“He was just a kid!” He rages at Stick. He can feel the horns on his head, just out of sight. Behind him, the wind whips around phantom wings. “He was just a kid and you killed him!”_

_Stick laughs. “If you bothered to listen, you would know he was more than that. You’re as blind as ever, Matty.”_

_The wind freezes. The air has turned still and cold. He can still hear the city around them, but it is silent. It reminds him of the lake._

_“Get out.”_

_“What did you say?” Stick is trying to regain control of the situation, but he can feel that something has changed._

_“Get out of my city,” Matt growls. “Get out of my city and stay out of my life.”_

_For once, Stick listens._

-+-

The kids leave him alone after that, but there are whispers.

“Demon-spawn,” they say, hushed and terrified even when they think he can’t hear. “Devil child.”

They don’t know how right and yet how wrong they are. 

Whenever he’s around, though, they don’t say anything. 

A new kid, older and bigger than the rest, tries to knock him down. Instead, he ends up on the ground, clutching his nose. Matt relishes the sting in his knuckles even as the nuns lead him away.

The kid he punched joins the whisperers, after that. 

This is how he spends the rest of his teenage years. New bullies come thinking he’s an easy target. They leave thinking he’s the Devil.

(Matt earns that name long before he dons a mask and becomes the vigilante of Hell’s Kitchen.)

When he leaves the orphanage, he leaves with a reputation. They will remember him as the lawyer who wanted to fight. 

-+-

Columbia is a blessing. There, no one cares if he’s stronger or faster than he should be. No one really questions the fact that his hearing is far better than anyone else’s; no one really cares that he knows more than he should. They’re all tired law students - so what if the blind kid seems more than human sometimes?

He’s pretty sure some of them think he’s on drugs. He isn’t, but it’s kind of funny when he considers what they _could_ be thinking about him.

(And it’s refreshing to be accepted, for once. No one calls him the Devil at college; he hasn’t given them a reason to, yet, and he won’t. The ableism is bad enough.)

Foggy never questions his hearing; not in any hurtful, careless way, at least. That’s when Matt knows they’re going to be life-long friends. He would say that Foggy is an angel in disguise, but he’s met angels. He’s _been_ an angel. None of them are as good as Foggy is.

-+-

Karen is Nelson & Murdock’s first client. Matt can tell she’s skeptical of them. He would be too, in her position. He knows that they must look like amateurs, and they are. But they’re _good_ amateurs. They take the case.

That night, Karen Page is nearly killed in her cell. If Matt wasn’t convinced there was more to her case than meets the eye, he is now. Foggy agrees with him, too, especially when Karen isn’t charged.

They had almost the perfect case; she wasn’t charged with anything, so there is more that they don’t know. Someone else killed Mr. Fisher, someone who framed Karen.

Matt doesn’t know who that someone is, but he will.

Karen joins Nelson & Murdock as their secretary, but Matt knows she’ll become more than that. Friends - it’s almost a new concept to him. 

-+-

Two days after opening the firm, Matt pulls on a mask for the first time. He corners a man by the railroad tracks and beats him within an inch of his life. He relishes the feel of skin splitting under his knuckles.

The man won’t be touching his daughter again.

The next day, Foggy notices the scabs on his knuckles. 

“Oh,” Matt says, fingers curling around his cane. He welcomes the light burn of healing skin stretching across bone. “It’s nothing, Foggy. I tripped and tried to catch myself on the wall. It...didn't go as planned.” He laughs softly, almost self-deprecatingly. 

Karen and Foggy buy it, barely. They let the subject drop, though, because they all have more important things to worry about. 

After that, he’s careful to hide his knuckles and any other bruises he might have.

-+-

The Man in the Mask, the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen, Daredevil - he has many names. Whatever you want to call him, he’s starting to gain a reputation.

There are some that think he’s a hero. They believe he’s doing the right thing, beating up gangsters and human traffickers in the dead of night. He saves Karen’s life. She thinks he’s a good man.

Others, like Foggy, think that he’s a terrorist. He’s a terror, certainly, but only to those who deserve it.

Some don’t believe he’s human. They say he’s the actual Devil, a demon come to take Hell’s Kitchen’s sinners down to where they belong. They whisper that he has spiraling horns and wings so black they blend in with the night. People call them crazy.

**"That's what makes him dangerous. Living in the shadows, no one knowing who he is."  
-Matt Murdock**

Hell’s Kitchen explodes and Matt is the one to blame.

Well. The media is blaming the Man in the Mask, anyway - Fisk is the one with his thumb on the trigger.

“On your knees! Do it! Last chance, asshole, I will not hesitate to put you down! On your knees, do it!”

The cop isn’t lying. Matt kneels. The metal of the handcuffs is cold on his wrists. The second cop walks over to Vladimir. The safety on his gun is flicked off with an almost innocuous-sounding click.

“What about this asshole?”

“Take care of him like we were told. No witnesses.”

Matt moves. Even with their guns, the cops are too surprised to do anything before they’re on the ground, unconscious. Vladimir has been shot, but it’s not fatal. Yet. Matt grabs him and runs.

He doesn’t notice the security camera. It’s a mistake, but it’s not his first.

(Some might say his first mistake was becoming the Man in the Mask in the first place. Others might argue that it was rebelling.)

-+-

“What are you doing?” Vladimir asks. Matt ignores him.

The ESU has arrived. The building is surrounded now, with the streets crawling with officers and reporters. He can hear snipers getting into position.

Across the room, Officer Sullivan’s radio crackles to life.

 _“I would like to speak with the man in the mask, please,”_ Fisk says.

Matt holds the radio in his hand like he’s studying it. “Say your name.”

Fisk laughs. It sounds like static. _“You first.”_ Matt doesn’t say anything. _“That’s what I thought. You and I have a lot in common.”_

Matt scoffs. “You and I are nothing alike. You’ve killed innocent people.”

_“Young man, life is not a fairy tale. Not everyone deserves a happy ending.”_

_And you do?_ Matt thinks but doesn’t say. He chucks the radio at the wall. It shatters. It’s not as satisfying as he would have hoped.

Outside, the shooting starts. It’s not the building they’re aiming at.

-+-

Matt looks up when Vladimir nearly collapses in front of him.

“I told you,” he says, fingers curling around the slats of the grate. “This is not how I die.”

There’s something foreboding about his words. Matt nods. Opening the grate almost blocks out Officer Sullivan’s death.

Almost.

(Matt's soul, if he still has one, is stained a bit redder with the blood of another innocent.)

-+-

“Where are we?” Vladimir mumbles. He won’t survive much longer.

“Access tunnels. The city was built on a network of these.” He shifts. Vladimir grunts with the movement. “Alright, we have to keep moving. Find a way to the street.”

The words are barely out of his mouth when another heartbeat enters the tunnel. Matt drops Vladimir as lightly as he can.

“Freeze!”

Machine gun fire lights up the tunnel. It's loud enough to drown out the stuttering of Vladimir's heart.

Matt kicks the last cop to the ground and turns, only to find Vladimir struggling to stand. There’s a gun in his hand.

“I think maybe I stay.”

No, no, this isn’t how it ends. He still needs Vladimir, he can still save him. He can help take down Fisk. He has information that Matt needs. Matt can save him. _This is not how it ends._

Even as he thinks it, he knows it’s futile. This is where Vladimir dies.

“There’s only one way to stop him,” Vladimir is saying. “You know this.”

“No, I’m not a killer.” He made a promise.

Vladimir laughs. It turns into a cough; Matt can smell the blood on his lips. He can taste it in the air. 

“The moment you put on the mask you got into a cage with animals,” Vladimir rasps. “Animals don’t stop fighting. Not until one of them is dead.”

He adjusts his position, pushing himself up against the wall. “The man you think you want is Leland Owlsley. It won’t be enough.” There are footsteps echoing through the tunnels. The smell of gunpowder mixes with the smell of blood. “Go.”

Matt disappears into the darkness. He can hear Vladimir mumbling a Russian song under his breath. It’s nearly drowned out by gunshots.

The lyrics die on his lips.

-+-

_Claire is a good woman. Not everyone, nurse or not, would stitch up a strange man that their neighbor found in the dumpster._

_Not everyone would continue to help that man when he tortures someone for information. Nearly no one would help the man do the torturing. No nurse would do such a thing._

_Despite all of this, Matt knows she is good. She helps him, and he saves her. They're friends, maybe. They kiss; maybe they're something more. (No good friendship is built on blood and stitches. Maybe they're something less.)_

_Claire is the first person he tells about his world on fire. He does not tell her why it is so significant or why he hates it so much._

_When she leaves him, Matt cannot say he blames her. Everyone has their limit, after all, and getting kidnapped by the Russians is hers._

_Claire is gone, so people like Fisk cannot hurt her. Matt wishes he could send Karen and Foggy and Ben away as well, but he can’t._

_When Ben is killed, Matt knows it was bound to happen. It doesn’t make it any better. He vows for revenge._

-+-

Matt does not like men like Wilson Fisk. 

Men like him like to play God. They think they can do whatever they want to reach whatever ends they like. They’re too powerful for anyone to stop, and they know it. Wilson Fisk is the worst of them all.

Matt hates him. Then again, he doesn’t much like God, either. 

But God hasn’t killed innocents. Fisk’s hands are drenched in blood; blood he has spilled, and blood that has been spilled on his behalf. Too many people have died because of him. He claims he’s that he’s building a better tomorrow.

His better tomorrow will be built on a burial site if it ever comes to pass.

-+-

Matt, technically, cannot die.

Well. His  _mortal_ body will die, but his soul won’t go to the Afterlife. He’ll go to Hell as a demon, or maybe he’ll be sent back to his lake. He won’t go to Heaven. God doesn’t want him there, which is okay because he doesn’t want to go back. Most of the angels are self-righteous assholes, anyway.

(He’s a self-righteous asshole too. He was an angel once, after all.)

Still. _He_ can’t die, but his mortal body can. His mortal body has friends and Matt doesn’t want to abandon them. He’ll have to eventually, because he’s immortal and they’re not, but he doesn’t want to have to do it because some thug got the best of him. Getting his ass handed to him by a ninja helps solidify his decision to get armor. Especially since, with Claire gone, there's no one to stitch him up if he passes out in a dumpster.

Perhaps Melvin isn’t the most trustworthy person he could get a suit from. He doesn’t have access to Heaven’s armory, though (not that he _wants_ access), so Melvin will have to suffice. He’s good at what he does, and that’s all that matters.

They make a deal.

Melvin stops working with Fisk; Matt gets a suit. Matt protects Betsy; Melvin makes him weapons to go along with his fists. It’s a good deal.

As long as no one breaks it.

**"I'm not trying to be a hero. I'm just a guy that got fed up with men like you and I decided to do something about it."  
-Matt Murdock**

Fisk is getting more and more dangerous and Matt is getting desperate, both as a lawyer and as Daredevil. The news is corrupt. Brett is the only cop they can trust. Marci gets them information at the cost of her job. 

Hoffman is still alive.

In a last-ditch attempt to end everything, Matt seeks him out. He finds him with a gun in his face. There are bodies scattered around him, but it’s not his work. Matt needs him, so he saves his life.

If he wasn’t needed, the man would be dead. Matt wonders if leaving him to die would count as breaking his promise. 

He wonders if that’s something he would want to do. 

-+-

Hoffman walks into the 15th Precinct with blood and brains still splattered over his face. Fifteen minutes later, Nelson & Murdock are there to represent their client.

Two hours later, the FBI is arresting people all over the city. Matt pretends like he doesn’t hear the triumphant and smug beat of Brett’s heart when he and Foggy head back to the office. Brett deserves to feel victorious. Matt won’t fault him, especially since he and Foggy are going to meet Karen for drinks and celebrate. On the drive there, Matt listens to the ashamed and scared and angry heartbeats of Fisk's men. He allows himself to feel proud.

They should have known it wouldn’t last. Fisk is a slippery bastard, after all. It’s a good thing Matt's suit is ready. He’s going to need it.

Matt Murdock leaves Karen and Foggy in a suit and tie. Daredevil enters the fray with horns and blood-red armor.

-+-

His newly-acquired billy club falls through the truck’s windshield with a crash. The driver jerks, surprised, and the truck goes flying. It skids across the ground with a horrible shriek. Inside the cab, the driver’s heartbeat stutters once, twice. He isn’t dead, but it’s a near thing.

Fisk stumbles out of the truck, clutching his head. Matt appears on the truck above him. It takes Fisk a moment to realize who he is. For the first time, his heartbeat sounds scared.

“You told me once that not everyone deserves a happy ending.”

The guard in the truck starts shooting and Fisk runs. 

Good. He should be afraid.

-+-

“I’m gonna _kill you_!” Fisk roars, cornered in an alleyway. He’s grown desperate now; when you corner a wild animal, it gets reckless.

His heartbeat is terrified and angry and defiant. Matt tilts his head and his horns flicker into existence; his real ones, not the ones on his helmet. His wings flutter behind him, rustling dangerously in a wind that isn’t there.

He laughs softly. “Take your shot.”

When Brett arrives, Fisk is facedown in a pool of blood and Matt’s head is ringing. The Kingpin is finally taken into custody. Matt hopes he rots in jail.

He knows he’ll rot in Hell when he gets there. All Matt has to do is wait.

-+-

He almost, _almost_ pities Vanessa. He knows what it is like to lose someone you love, though he cannot imagine why she loves Fisk. He also knows that she is not entirely innocent, but there is no proof to back this up so he allows her to go free. He can’t exactly bring her in and say “I’m a demon, I know what I’m talking about, trust me.” 

(He isn’t exactly a demon, either, but his point still stands.)

Vanessa is not entirely innocent, but she is innocent enough. Matt allows her to go free and he almost pities her.

He does not pity Wilson Fisk.

The Devil of Hell’s Kitchen continues his work, more dangerous than ever.

-+-

“There,” Foggy says, tapping their plaque. He sounds happy. “What do you think?”

“I think I’m glad we actually got it made,” Karen says. Matt agrees with her.

He steps forward, running his hand over the raised letters. The metal cool under his fingers even though it should be warmed by the sun.

“Nelson and Murdock.” He grins at Foggy. “Avocados at law.” Foggy laughs.

“What?” Karen asks, laughing a little as well. Matt shrugs.

“It’s a long story,” he says.

 _This is good,_  he thinks. _I’m happy. This is good._

He should know that his happiness rarely lasts.


End file.
